He says, he says: 2 Utahns trade barbs over possible 4th seat

Utah might have a real shot at a fourth U.S. House seat in the next year or two if Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, wasn't opposing a bill giving Utah "that extra clout," Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, charged Thursday.

Bishop made the comments in speaking to the Deseret Morning News editorial board.

Matheson denies he's attempted to stop the so-called "Davis bill," a measure that would, until the 2010 Census and redistricting, increase the number of U.S. House members from 435 to 437, giving Utah one more seat and giving Washington, D.C., a voting member of the House for the first time.

"I've always supported a fourth seat for Utah," Matheson said. "It is disingenuous to say anything else. I'm not trying to stop this. Rep. Bishop's own Republican leadership (in the House) has said — and I quote — 'no way' on this bill."

Nearly everyone agrees that the D.C. representative would be a Democrat — the district is overwhelmingly Democratic.

Likewise, no matter how the new Utah representative was redistricted or chosen, he or she would be a Republican. So, the current majority/minority makeup of the House would not be changed. (Utah was selected as the state to get the temporary extra seat because it barely lost out for a fourth seat in the 2000 Census, likely will get a fourth seat in the 2010 Census and would provide a sure-Republican seat.)

Bishop said he and Rep. Chris Cannon , R-Utah, are strongly in favor of the bill.

"But the Democratic leadership in the House is stalling it," Bishop said. And they are doing that at the request of Matheson, Bishop added.

"We don't have his (Matheson's) support. And it is frustrating," said Bishop, who hemmed and hawed at the editorial board before finally laying blame at Matheson's feet.

"I don't know how much of this to tell you," Bishop said at one point.

"I'm so excited that Rob Bishop thinks I have the ability to stop a Republican bill in the U.S. House," Matheson said. "I didn't think he thought I had that kind of stature here." (The bill is sponsored by Rep. Thomas Davis, R-Va.)

Bishop said he knows that Matheson and some other Utah Democrats fear that should the bill pass, the GOP-controlled Utah Legislature would redraw Utah's current three U.S. House districts, before the 2010 Census, to make Matheson's current 2nd District even more Republican.

"He thinks the Legislature is out to get him."

But Bishop said it's not possible to draw a district in Utah more Republican than Matheson has now. "I know. I tried" just to see if it could be done, Bishop said.